On completing my first online course

If you’re around me long enough, you’ll know that I love exploring, tinkering and learning stuff. With the advent of MOOCs, I suddenly had access to a lot of courses that present subtopics in a structured way. I tried many times previously, but due to various valid and invalid reasons, I couldn’t complete any courses.

Today, I completed my first online course. By completing I mean following through the course schedule and doing assignments on time. It was Cryptography-1 by Dan Boneh from Stanford on Coursera, and it was good. I used to read a lot on crypto but never did a structured course. Due to my own reasons, I couldn’t take up a crypto course at my university, now I’ve done the first part of a two part course that is structured and is reasonably detailed.

If you are interested in cryptography, and are a beginner, do check it out. The course will repeat next month, and you can take it for free. Actually, if you are an average internet user, I believe you should understand how security in the modern digital world is engineered and implemented. In my first year at IITD, I was made to work hands-on on carpentry, sheet metal work, casting, forging, black  smithy, welding, and lathe machining. That taught me to appreciate the work. I’ll certainly remember how challenging and physically straining the work was if I ever have to bargain with a carpenter or welder, for instance. Similarly, if someone studies the crypto primitives and tries to understand the basis of modern digital security, they will be able to appreciate the inner workings and would respect the engineers and computing devices.

My thanks to Prof. Dan Boneh, for the excellent course, and Stanford university and Coursera for making it possible.

Aside: I never recommend anything unless I try it myself. When people ask me to recommend someone to program their stuff, I decline unless I have worked directly or have reviewed the work of someone in that field. I never recommend a software or a particular technology unless I get my hands dirty with it. Considering that most freshers at IIT Delhi are not familiar with Linux, and will need to be familiar with it for their study here, I have considered recommending Introduction to Linux by The Linux Foundation on Edx. Though I should trust LF on all matters linux implicitly, owing to my habit, I’m trying the course. Just started it and if time permits, I should be done by tomorrow and will post a follow up recommending it.

Update: Took me much longer than expected to finish the course since I was busy and lazy (a terrible combination btw). It covers just the absolute basics, but I’d still recommend it. Takes not more than a few hours to go through it all; and after completing it, you’ll at least know how to find your way around.